Post by Sherry on Jul 26, 2012 17:18:11 GMT -5
I thought I should include Athena's reaction to Zeus' passing, since I'm quite sure others will come up against this as well.
After helping Zeus to cross we brought him home for his Athena to say goodbye to the friend, and possible littermate(they'd been purchased together by original owner).
We laid him on a towel, put up the baby gate, and brought Athena up to the room. She wandered over and sniffed him a couple of times then made an attempt to get him to get up by pushing him from under the towel.
When he didn't get up, she ran to the gate and started digging at the corner to escape the room.
After realizing she couldn't get out, she circled around Zeus' body and approached him from behind to sniff at him again. She came running over to me and climbed up to my chest and stared me in the eyes. She looked back over at Zeus again then started kissing me frantically. She stopped to stare at him again before kissing even MORE frantically. This was repeated several times, almost as though she was asking me to make it all better.
After about 10 minutes if kiss, check, kiss, check she ran to the gate, almost desperate to escape.
I know it sounds cruel keeping her in the room, but Boris had gone into a sort of denial over Sinnead and we almost lost him. We weren't going to make that mistake again.
Over the next hour, Athena would hide under various things before coming over to Zeus to sniff at him. Each approach started coming closer together before she hid again.
I had to leave the room to get a drink. After I left, Cliff told me she finally approached Zeus to start grooming him. Once that process began she was finally able to accept the fact her friend had passed and begin her own grieving process. She groomed him from head to tail and ultimately curled up with her mate's body.
Because of this we knew we were less likely to lose her.
I just wanted to point out that even if your surviving ferrets don't appear to acknowledge the death of a friend immediately, you still need to give them some time to come to terms with it. Especially if they've become very strongly bonded.
The entire process with Athena took her almost three hours.
After helping Zeus to cross we brought him home for his Athena to say goodbye to the friend, and possible littermate(they'd been purchased together by original owner).
We laid him on a towel, put up the baby gate, and brought Athena up to the room. She wandered over and sniffed him a couple of times then made an attempt to get him to get up by pushing him from under the towel.
When he didn't get up, she ran to the gate and started digging at the corner to escape the room.
After realizing she couldn't get out, she circled around Zeus' body and approached him from behind to sniff at him again. She came running over to me and climbed up to my chest and stared me in the eyes. She looked back over at Zeus again then started kissing me frantically. She stopped to stare at him again before kissing even MORE frantically. This was repeated several times, almost as though she was asking me to make it all better.
After about 10 minutes if kiss, check, kiss, check she ran to the gate, almost desperate to escape.
I know it sounds cruel keeping her in the room, but Boris had gone into a sort of denial over Sinnead and we almost lost him. We weren't going to make that mistake again.
Over the next hour, Athena would hide under various things before coming over to Zeus to sniff at him. Each approach started coming closer together before she hid again.
I had to leave the room to get a drink. After I left, Cliff told me she finally approached Zeus to start grooming him. Once that process began she was finally able to accept the fact her friend had passed and begin her own grieving process. She groomed him from head to tail and ultimately curled up with her mate's body.
Because of this we knew we were less likely to lose her.
I just wanted to point out that even if your surviving ferrets don't appear to acknowledge the death of a friend immediately, you still need to give them some time to come to terms with it. Especially if they've become very strongly bonded.
The entire process with Athena took her almost three hours.